Two teams with their minds more obviously on correcting the perceived injustices of the past than on winning a match through the sort of expressive football that earned the European Cup its reputation fought each other virtually to a standstill in Milan last night.

Penalties in the opening minutes of each half produced parity at the end of 90 minutes and, when a further 30 minutes produced no golden goal, more penalties were destined to decide the issue. Level at 3-3 after five each, Bayern eventually won when Oliver Kahn made his third save, denying Mauricio Pellegrino.

The match could hardly have got off to a more blazingly contentious start. Within the first minute Stefan Effenberg hit a long ball up the middle for Giovane Elber, who fell inside the area in a tangle of limbs with Fabian Ayala. The German fans roared for a penalty, to no avail.

Instead a free-kick was awarded to Valencia. Santiago Canizares sent the ball down the left, where John Carew beat Sammy Kuffour with ease before cutting the ball back to the feet of Gaizka Mendieta. The Valencia captain scuffed his first attempt at a shot but, as the ball rebounded to him, a ruck formed with defenders flailing desperately in their attempts to clear the ball. This time Dick Jol spotted an infringement - possibly a tug on Mendieta, who waited for the dust to settle before side-footing the penalty wide of Oliver Kahn's right hand.

Two minutes later the Ger man champions were in full cry when Jocelyn Angloma tripped Effenberg as the Bayern captain raced into the area. This time there was no doubt about the offence but Mehmet Scholl hit his penalty straight at Canizares, who blocked the ball with his legs.

Bayern recovered quickly from their disappointment, exerting tremendous pressure on Valencia whenever the Spanish team won possession and making frequent inroads down the left, where Bixente Lizarazu and Hasan Salihamidzic were driving Angloma to distraction and forcing Mendieta to spend most of his time reinforcing the defence.

Twice within a few seconds Thomas Linke saw his shots charged down in the aftermath of a corner. When Elber went smoothly round Mauricio Pellegrino on the edge of the six-yard box, his cross-shot ran wide of the far post, as did Scholl's free-kick on the half-hour, after Angloma had taken a scythe to Salihamidzic.

Bookings for Amadeo Carboni, for wasting time - with only 25 minutes gone - and Patrik Andersson, for tripping Pablito Aimar, indicated the tensions at work within the match but the coolest man on the field appeared to be the 20-year-old Owen Hargreaves, Bayern's Canadian-born England Under-21 international, who slotted into the central midfield alongside Effenberg and was showing signs, in both his defensive and creative work, of a talent that may be of use to Sven-Goran Eriksson's senior squad before long.

Hargreaves' close attention to the task of restricting the activities of Aimar was probably behind the replacement of the 21-year-old Argentine by the more robust David Albelda at the start of the second half, while Ottmar Hitzfeld decided to reinforce his attack with Carsten Jancker.

The red flares were now ablaze in the end occupied by the German fans, and Bayern's rearrangement paid dividends within six minutes of Jancker's appearance when Carboni was adjudged to have handled the ball while going up with the giant substitute as Elber's cunning cross floated over from the left. Scholl was not given a second chance to fail from the penalty spot. Instead the German captain Effenberg stepped up to slide the kick inside the right-hand post.

Now it was Bayern's turn to relax and Valencia's chance to press, Mendieta sending a free-kick curling past the post before launching Juan Sanchez with a wonderful ball which the Spanish forward touched into the path of Kily Gonzalez's diagonal run. That, however, was Sanchez's final contribution, his departure after 66 minutes making way for Zlatko Zahovic as Hector Cuper, Valencia's coach, strove to add bite to his attack.